Author’s Note: This is a republished historical post after the Feb08 relaunch of Soulincode:
As a DJ for the last 10 years, I have spent many hours listening to music, imagining mixes, getting songs and melodies stuck in my head, and most important of all - hearing things in my daily life that make me imagine new music altogether.
So much of our influences and inspirations come from the act of moving around and interacting with people and our environment. This is why no great writer or inventor leaves his/her house without a pen and paper… as my colleague Chris and I used to jokingly yell when we were out somewhere and an idea hit w/ no recording tools handy, “Writer without a pen!!!!!!!”. We never know when inspiration will hit through any of our senses, and with movement through space and experience triggering so many thoughts, it’s nice to have any aid handy to keep the fresh energy of those ideas for further development.
This dynamic of creativity and remix, where the digital consumer and author merge into one within a growing mix culture triggers the synthesis of this Open Source Idea: a portable multi-track MP3 song production tool.
Apple’s iPod is a perfect stepping-off point towards envisioning this idea. I have always considered the iPod as a finely designed tool to help me play the soundtrack of my life while on the move. As opposed to relaxing in a controlled environment at home or work with the HiFi, with the iPod I am cruising the streets, watching the city and nature do its thing as if moving in synchronicity to my music, and more importantly, my mix. In this sonic enclosure blossoms an experience so special and exciting…think of this while watching the iPod users spacing out as they walk down the street. They are in another world based on just one different signal through their hearing sense.
The iPod points to an important division that is beginning to disappear in the growing audience for digital equipment and content, thef digital consumer versus author. Today’s iPod buyer and listener is a digital consumer in that the iPod and its songs are bought, and these tunes played through the device play through in their original form. There is no way to adjust or tweak much of anything on iPod and its songs.
We are now entering a more interesting interactive phase of the digital age, as the digital consumer and author begin to merge as technology advances beyond a “player” of experience to be “facilitator” to live, record, and remix experience, new and old . Our dreams and ideas will soon be instantly recordable as digital notes, then available to further mix and remix, due in part to technology innovation but also the new way we think and develop ideas.
So rather than simply walk down the street listening to your iPod, walking around recording sounds for later use, or trying to remember the sound of birds or a passing piece of a tune from a car stereo zooming by, we will be able to record and layer the inspirations and ideas from these experiences in realtime. These layers of experience are the source fuel for original new ideas, yet its use must be quite easy and non-intrusive, for the technology and pauses to play with recorded reality should not intrude too much on its experience in general.
In terms of music, I can think of no better tool to show the possibilities than a portable multi-track MP3 song production tool. I am not sure how many people out there share this experience with me, but among my musically minded friends, we’re always talking about the many musical inspirations that come from just listening and experience in daily life…we think of some great lyric or bassline, perhaps a beat or melody, and you’ve got it in your head. And not only do you want to remember it, but you are also wondering what else it might go with…like a dancehall or hip-hop lyric…and you’re thinking of whether it might go over some kind of salsa type sound you hear coming out from a window above you…on and on..sounds, colors, movement, inspiration.
If the device imagined in this post is in your hand, all you need to do is whistle, snap, hum, or just sample/record your surrounding sounds and you are pretty much ready to roll in making all of these ideas into a song. Each “sample” or sound layer you create becomes a sonic digital note. You can then layer one idea on top of another and play them back with each other.
With multi-tracking ability and a way to sequence and make basic loops, plus pitch adjust and time stretch on each layer, you have the means to make a simple but amazing layered song just by tapping, humming and recording sounds straight from their source. If you don’t know the terms above, don’t worry, it just means you can layer one sound on top of the next and then play around with them until they fit and sound right together. By adding ability to turn layers on or off while recording your next layer, you can make it so it’s easy to hear the tempo and key that your song is built upon, which makes recording much easier, kind of like recording a layer as if it’s karaoke.
In fact, for all those strictly singers out there, you could just pack this tool full of karaoke instrumentals or if you’re more hardcore, instrumentals from hip-hop, dance music, or any other genre, so you can practice freestyling, singing, or singing other songs you know over new beats. It’s pretty much an endless practice and creation tool.
Dropping back in reality from dreamland, I have played with enough software and hardware out there to know this idea is very possible. There are many software programs to create layered soundtracks and songs, Apple’s GarageBand being a recent entry on the market. The iPod shows there is a way to make music listening and navigation a breeze, and while a multitrack recorder, playback and editor is more complex, I have ideas on how to make it easy to make simple layered sonic notes, which is what this tool is designed to be. These notes are recorded as MP3s to save disk space and because they are rough notes, and they can then be downloaded to your regular computer for import into more complex and multifaceted song production and mixing tools.
Like the iPod, such a device is built in the form of simple computer on a large capacity hard drive. It should also feature a huge dedication of R&D to a good design and interface, much like Apple product development under Jonathan Ives. This is the essential failing point to so much technology, that it’s not intuitive to use.
The user should be able to walk down the road, even using this as an MP3 player in interim times between using it to author new songs and song notes. How good the the device is designed will be reflected in how quickly the user can switch between digital consumer (MP3 listener) and digital author (multitrack MP3 creator).
Yeah, I know…sounds great on paper. This project needs the right team to make a tool that sticks. The iPod is a perfect example, where there were many MP3 players on the market before its introduction. Its design is what sets it apart and caused its huge emergence and impact on the music industry. This project requires great interface designers, both software, hardware, and particularly human-machine interface designers. Musicians and DJs are also key to developing a tool meant for their needs as early adopters.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Leave Your Comment Below